Elegant and formal, the bothrians are a mild-mannered race of beings that seek only to enjoy the good things in life -- to carefully slice flavorful meat and sip chilled wine while listening to music and watching their victims scream as the skin is carefully peeled away from the muscle.

Slender humanoids with octopoidal features, their smooth, moist skin ranges in hue from violet to bright green, and changes slightly with mood. Most bothrians favor damp climates, and are typically found near pools where they can soak when the mood arises. Their tentacles undulate while they speak, and many of them have pierced, tattooed, or otherwise decorated their appendages to indicate status.

If provoked, a bothrian typically tries to cause as much harm as possible, while amusing itself by using its abilities to manipulate and bewilder its intellectually-inferior foes. Bothrians have spent centuries honing their mental powers, and can use the following spelllike abilities at will: ESP, levitate, phantasm, wizard sense. In addition, it can use these abilities once per day: charm person, forget, scare, word of command.

Three times per day, the bothrian can employ mindblade, a magical attack which functions like a breath weapon with a 60 ft cone (5 ft at base and 20 ft at end); victims must succeed in a DC 14 Ref save or have their intelligence reduced to 1 for 1d6 rounds (no spellcasting possible). All abilities are performed at 7th-level mastery.

They can also attack with their tentacles; a successful hit inflicts 1-4 damage, and the victim must succeed in a DC 15 Fort save or lose 1 point of intelligence. The following round, the victim must make an additional saving throw or lose another point. Thus, a hit means that the target will lose 0-2 points of intelligence per hit. The effect is usually temporary (intelligence is restored in 1d6 rounds); however, in 10% of cases, this intelligence loss is permanent, and must be remedied somehow.